Grand Turk {Sketchabilities Sketch #74}

Time sure flies when you're having fun, as they say, and it's been really fun working with the Sketchabilities during my term as a design team member. Thank you, Karan, for including me on this wonderful team!

Here's our current sketch:

And here is the page I made. The young lady in the photos is my best friend's daughter, Monica, and that's her sweet husband, James, who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma when he was sixteen. He has been battling this evil cancer for six long years, and at this very moment, James is at Georgetown University Hospital, and it's looking like this disease is hell-bent on winning. My heart is breaking for James, for Monica, and for everyone who is going to miss this amazing young man. Monica has been posting photos taken over the years on James's facebook page, and I decided I'm going to make an album for Monica using some of these photos. This is the first page.

Here are some details. These papers are all pretty old, from K&Co. I thought they had a nice tropical feel that goes with the pictures.

This beautiful border is made with a Cheery Lynn Designs die. The butterflies, of course, are by Jenni Bowlin, and the rhinestone brads are from Jo-Ann's a long time ago, and they're by Creating Keepsakes.

I used some old Heidi Swapp chipboard letters, which I bought a ton of back in the day when they were the only chipboard letters on the market. The lime-looking shape is also from a K&Co paper. The leaves are a Cheery Lynn die.

Go see the amazing layouts from the rest of the design team here. And you'll definitely want to play along--this was a really fun sketch to work with!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and reading about my page.

Creative Scrappers e-Book Winner (plus my layout)

The winner of the Creative Scrappers e-book, based on this:

is Petra! Thank you to everyone who visited and left a comment.

Petra, please contact Kristine at Creative Scrappers (there's a "Contact Us" tab at the top of the blog) with your email address so she can send you this awesome e-book.

Here is my page that's in this book. That's my husband's niece and her husband who were visiting us recently.

In addition to the sketch Kritine sent me, I used palette #94 from The Color Room as a starting point for my layout:

Here are a few closeups. Thes doilies are by Martha Stewart. They're kind of shimmery and very pretty.

The kraft journaling spot is by Maya Road. I'm not sure who made the other one.

Patterned papers I used are by K&Co, Crate Paper, and My Mind's Eye (the leaves--from a really old paper).

 I highly recommend this wonderful e-book. It's chock-full of awesome sketches and gorgeous pages by scrappers from all over the globe. Thank you for stopping by my blog and looking at my page.

Fashion Month Kicks Off at CCG!

A new month brings a new theme at Color Combos Galore, and this month is going to be a fun one! It's Fashion Month at CCG, and here's a little song for your listening pleasure to go with this week's challenge:



Here's what we got to play with this week:

(A little side note on the color names: Janet and I were talking on the phone trying to come up with names for the colors, and we decided to go with fabrics. The first three came fairly easy. When we got to the fourth color, we were debating about what color it was. I thought it looked olive; Janet said it was gray. Janet was thinking of "Funky Flannel," but I said they still wouldn't know what color it was. We went back and forth, and I said it's sort of like "mystery meat," and that's when we both started cracking up and decided that would be the name of the fourth color. Ha-ha--a little double entendre.)

I was in a time crunch this week, so I combined this challenge with the challenge at Creative Prompts for You, where our prompt was Gustav Klimt's painting, "The Kiss." This painting inspired the topic and title of my layout.

A friend of ours took some beautiful photos of us during our wedding ceremony, but sadly, he didn't capture our "you may now kiss the bride" moment. Luckily, I have this snapshot that my sister took of us at the reception. It's really dark, but I wanted to document this moment in time from thirty years ago. I plan to journal on the back of the page.

Here are some closeups. I dug out lots of old papers and combined them with newer stuff. I added so many layers that you can only see a hint of the BasicGrey Capella paper and the Webster's Pages paper. The gray paper in the background is really old Mustard Moon paper, and the piece that ooks like a tile is Marah Johnson, by Creative Imaginations, also ancient. The little postage stamp looking bits are cut from an old K&Co. Life's Journey vellum sheet that I've had FOREVER. The Noteworthy card is from Echo Park's For the Record collection.

Like I said, I interpreted that fourth color as olive, so I dug out some peridot embossing powder and used this cool KaiserCraft stamp on vellum. I was worried the heat gun would melt the vellum, but it stood up nicely. The sparkly letters are Thickers, and the little birdcage, butterflies, and clock were cut out of some Webster's Pages papers.

Of course I had to add some flowers on a wedding page. The fabric rose is Bo Bunny, cut from some flower ribbon, and I added a jeweled brad. I got a ton of these from Jo'Ann's years ago, and they're so pretty--the brand is Creating Keepsakes. The other two flowers are Prima.

The pretty gray ruffled trim is Pink Paislee. I originally used the border punch beneath it on some patterned paper, but it looked too heavy with the delicate ruffles, so I decided to dig out some more vellum (I probably have 200 sheets of that stuff from way back when it was all the rage) and punched it. I ran my embossing ink over the edge and sprinkled it with the same peridot embossing powder.

I've got some doilies tucked in there, and it's hard to see, but I added some sheer swiss dot fabric between the bottom and the next layer--inspired by the fabric in the Inspiration Photo. The leafy stems are stamps by Melissa Frances.

Head on over to CCG and CP4U and see the awesome work everyone did, and you'll surely want to play along. There are, as always, prizes to be won. Check out both sites for details.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and reading about my page!

Hey There, Cupcake! {A Delicious, Dreamy Palette at CCG}

Challenge 181 just went live at Color Combos Galore, and we're rounding out our month-long theme of sweets with an especially delicious palette!

Check out those fancy-schmancy names I came up with for the colors! :) What's a furbelow, you ask?

1. a ruffle or flounce, as on a woman's skirt or petticoat.

2. any bit of showy trimming or finery.

Here's the page I made with this beautiful palette. I dug out some really old Li'l Davis polka dot paper and combined it with a bunch of different Webster's Pages papers and a fun textured paper. The filigree cupcake liners immediately made me think of doilies.

Here are some detail photos. The butterfly, journaling spot and paper lanterns are cut from various Webster's Pages papers. The Eau de Toilette piece came from a Design Originals book of ephemera cut-outs that I bought years and years aog. And remember when Making Memories made those washers with the words and the K&Company came out with sticker versions of those? Yeah, I bought them, and there they've sat in my stash for eons. But lately, I've been trying to use some of my older stash and this sticker was the perfect color, so I went for it. I think mounting it on a punched circle, adding a jeweled brad, and tucking it into other layers updated its look a bit! Oh, and that gate sticker? It's by Mrs. Grossmans. Gasp! I almost got rid of that a couple of years ago when I was purging stuff from my stash. So happy I kept it!

The yellow and green flowers are cut from Webster's Bloomers and American Crafts ribbon trim. I nestled some jeweled brads in the centers to hold them in place. The wispy blue flower is from Michael's Recollection brand. I tucked in a little burgundy flower, as inspired by that some of the flowers on the cupcakes and also to balance the bit of burgundy on the umbrella.

This lovely silhouette was cut out of a Webster's Pages Hollywood Vogue paper. I put her on pop dots and added some pearls to the flowers on her hat. Isn't that yellow paper cool? I've had it for ages. Not sure where I picked it up, but it's by The Paper Company. The embossed word stickers are also pretty old and are by K&Company. I love adding word stickers--they add that little something to the story, and my layouts always feel naked without them.

The resin photo corner is by Melisa Frances. So pretty and detailed!

The umbrella is also from a Webster's Pages paper. I added black Ranger's Enamel Accents over the black dots that were printed on the umbrella to add some texture to this cut-out.

The design team did some amazing work with this palette--go over and take a peek. And I hope you'll play along. This is the last week to post a project in our Gallery to qualify for a cool prize provided by our sponsor, Unity Stamp Company. Plus, you might just wind up as our Gallery Fave or become a Featured Member for a future challenge!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and looking at my layout!



Purse-onality! {Creative Prompts for You Challenge #20}

I am having so much fun creating for Creative Prompts for You! I love the idea of using non-scrapping items as inspiration for my layouts. This week, our prompt was this photograph:

What interested me most about this photograph was the juxtaposition of the floral prints against the rustic wooden background. I also wanted to incorporate the purse idea, and I noticed the button clasp on the front purse and thought of the Maya Road clasp envelopes. The last element of inspiration I gathered for my layout was fabric--so, I used a fabric-covered brad and felt letter stickers for my title. I dug out some REALLY old woodgrain paper and some old K & Co. floral and striped papers to make my page. I just love when I can combine old and new stuff on my layouts!

Framed!

This week at Creative Prompts for You, our prompt was based on the inspiration piece below. The team made some really awesome and creative stuff with this prompt!

I really liked all those different frames, and I knew I wanted to use some of those old K & Co. metal frames that have been languishing in my stash for years. I was stumped for a while about how I could use the frames to tell a story, when it came to me that I would use them to document my current favorite photo. Since I've lost 55 pounds in the past fifteen months, I'm starting to like seeing myself in photos again. Here's the page I made:

I really need to learn how to photograph my layouts since my scanner absolutely hates metals and glittery things. My scanner also doesn't show the dimension on these pretty gold Martha Stewart butterflies, so I photographed a detail from my layout. The photo also shows how I mounted the flowers, cut from Webster's Pages paper, with pop dots:

Last week, I made this layout for How Much Is Too Much. Our challenge, based on the ages of Elizabeth's children, was to use: 9 circles, 7 brads, 6 photo corners, and 2 stamps. The photo corners stumped me for a while because I had planned on using all those circles in my design, and how do you put photo corners on circles? I'm adding this page to my Book of Silly.